how to boost conversion for cross-border webshops · pdf filehow to boost conversion for...

HOW TO BOOST CONVERSION FOR CROSS-BORDER WEBSHOPSTHE IMPORTANCE OF IMPROVING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE & ENHANCING TRUST FROM THE FIRST VISIT TO THE CHECK-OUT

Internationalizing an online-shop is an exciting

project: Not only will it allow you to increase

sales and grow in new markets, it also means

interaction with a completely new consumer

group. The most effective and profitable way

of expanding to new markets is to select them

carefully, prioritising resources to the most

promising to ensure a successful market entry.

Online shopping depends a lot on trust: In

order for the consumer to hand over their

money, they need to feel safe. Consumers

want to understand if the product is the right

one, how long delivery takes, how the return

process works and that they can trust the

means of payment. Localization is a crucial

factor in this process.

Localization is an often used word, and it is

just as often misunderstood. In e-commerce,

localizing goes well beyond website translation.

It is about identifying with your targeted

audience on a level which extends far beyond

the spoken language: It means understanding

their buying behaviour and catering to their

preferences in order to create trust. Because

trust will help you convert. In addition, trust is

also highly relevant during the final phase of

the online purchase journey, the checkout.

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INTRODUCTION

Research reveals that globally, 77.5 percent

of online retail orders were abandoned in

the first quarter of 2015. This shows that

there is a lot of ground to be gained by

retailers in order to convert their visitors

more effectively. In this Whitepaper, we will

discuss the five phases that are relevant in

order to achieve a satisfactory conversion on

international markets and reduce shopping

cart abandonment:

Selecting the right market

Attracting relevant buyers

Creating trust and customer satisfaction

Providing a safe and smooth checkout

Prevent fraud

Copyright © 2008-2016 Salesupply BV, All rights reserved

The first question before even thinking about localization should be: Which markets offer reasonable

chances to set up a profitable business within a feasible time frame?

In order to select the right markets for an online expansion, the target countries should be profiled in

order to determine their potential. Don’t forget to analyze the search frequencies of your products in

the new markets. We also advise a comparison of product prices, CPC (Cost per Click, average costs

when running an AdWords Campaign) and CPO (Cost per Order, quality of a marketing measure). The

following elements should be taken into account:

SELECTING MARKETS

BUYER BEHAVIOUR

Spending patterns M-commerceCross-BorderPreferences

GENERAL COUNTRY DATA

DemographicsEconomy

Income situationetc.

E-COMMERCE MARKET

Internet access Online buyers

Market sizeetc.

INDUSTRY SPECIFIC

Industry situationShare of e-commerce

Competitionetc.

2Copyright © 2008-2016 Salesupply BV, All rights reserved

Language

Big global brands may achieve great international sales with an English-language dotcom-webshop

just because of their brand recognition, but for most retailers it is advisable to present their

online store in the local language of their target market. According to research by OC&C Strategy

Consultants, PayPal and Google , the fact that a website (and its customer support) are not available

in a buyer’s language is a crucial barrier for online shoppers to avoid foreign online stores. Moreover,

product descriptions and other relevant content in the local language improve the search engine

ranking, which is crucial for consumer attraction.

Attracting relevant traffic

In order to achieve higher conversion rates, it is of course important to attract relevant visitors in the

first instance. Localizing your marketing activities will help increase your traction in a new market:

ATTRACTING RELEVANT BUYERS

Paid campaigns:Advertisements, Google AdWord Campaigns, Offline Marketing, tailored to the local

audience. Don’t forget to make use of local holidays and cultural events to boost

attention!

Social Media:Social media helps build a community by starting a dialogue with a new local audience.

It can also support customer service activities.

Search engine ranking:Don’t forget that when selling in multiple markets, your websites might show a

substantial amount of duplicate content in several or even the same languages (e.g.

when selling to Germany and Austria). In order not to jeopardize your ranking, Google

allows you to indicate this using a special tag, which marks identical content aimed at

different target audiences:

<link rel=”alternate” hreflang=”language” href=”URL” />


CREATING TRUST & CUSTOMER SATISFACTION

Trust-Boosters

Consumers want to be assured that the seller they are purchasing from is trustworthy. A simple way

of generating consumer trust is displaying a local phone number and a local address. In addition,

a local trust mark (e.g. the badge of a national e-commerce association) increases trustworthiness

which will continue to increase if local customer product reviews are generated. When it comes to

interaction with your (potential) clients, take into account that the customer expects to be understood

and advised both quickly and correctly, otherwise they will most likely leave your shop. Your customer

service should therefore ideally provide native customer support agents, who are available at locally

appropriate hours. If you sell in the U.S. or overseas, this might mean several hours of time difference.

Transparency

Good product descriptions do not only contribute to a better search-engine ranking, they also provide

clear information for potential customers looking at your products. Good for conversion, also good

for reducing return rates. Aside from your products, it also helps to be clear about all aspects of

the purchase path including the delivery: What are the exact costs, what are the estimated shipping

times? For instance, ComScore found that 23 percent of shoppers abandoned cart because the

return policy was unclear to them. Why lose these customers? In addition, 61 percent value it most

important that estimated delivery date and shipping costs are communicated early in the purchase

process . Being transparent about what the buyer can expect helps prevent disappointments. Even

if your international shipping times are not perfect, it is better to be clear from the beginning than to

overpromise: A disappointed buyer more often than not won’t be coming back.


Currency & Sizes

It often helps to imagine a customer walking into a store in order to figure out what he might expect

from your webshop. A customer in a physical store expects to read price labels in the local currency

and find sizes which are common for the country they live in. Of course, for the customer it is quite

difficult to calculate product and shipping prices on their own when ordering abroad. Displaying prices

in a local currency is a must! When it comes to fashion and apparel, sizing is another important factor

influencing the buying decision: A size 8 from the UK or Australia equals a size 4 in the US and a 36 in

most parts of Europe. But even within Europe, there are differences: In France, the same item would

be labelled 38, in Italy it would be a size 42. If you don’t want to venture into digital fitting rooms, the

easiest way to provide transparency is a conversion table.

TRUST-BOOSTERS =CONVERSION BOOSTERS!

Conv

ersi

on

Translation Address &phone number

Localconditions

Shopoptimizing

Customerservice

Localmarketing

Logistics

Conversion


PROVIDING A SAFE AND SMOOTH CHECKOUT

Improve conversion during the checkout process

Conversion rate for payments is the ratio between the number of payment requests and successful payment authorisations. Recent research by Ingenico Payment Services has revealed that 20% of payment requests are not completed.

Transactions can fail for several reasons:

Consumer drop-off – could be due to lack of trust and confidence, the process may be too long and complicated or the preferred payment method may not be available

Transactions are not accepted by the acquirer – could be insufficient funds, failure to authenticate

Transactions are rejected by the merchant – blocked by fraud prevention measures,


WHAT CAN MERCHANTS DO TO REDUCE CARD ABANDONMENT ?

More trust, more conversion In the short term, there are some things merchants can do to build consumer confidence. These include a secure https url, having recognised and trusted logos, trust marks, clear pricing information and having payment pages that reflect the look and feel of the merchant’s brand.

Less clicks, more conversion

A smooth checkout for online and mobile payments to merchants is equally as important as creating trust. For example, one-page checkout and one-click shopping experience are great practices, made possible by using tokenisation. Tokenisation allows merchants not to store credit card numbers for future transactions. To achieve this, sensitive card data is replaced by tokens which are saved and used instead. According to ComScore (2015) , 51 percent of online buyers would greatly value this form of convenience.

With the increase of m-commerce, a great consumer experience also requires a mobile payment strategy. Whether a mobile website or a mobile app is preferred, conversion will be boosted by the use of payment pages adapted for mobile devices.

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Think global, act local

When asked what information or options were the most important during the checkout, 67 percent of respondents in a ComScore survey stated that a variety of payment options in addition to credit cards would be most important to them. As cross-border payments are increasing, it is important to take into account local factors: use of local languages, local currencies and local payment methods. In a number of countries credit card payments are not the ‘norm’. For example, in Germany or the Netherlands, direct debit payments and online banking transfers are far more frequently used. Ingenico Payment Services research shows that 59 % of online shoppers have abandoned a purchase when their preferred payment option has not been offered.



Not everybody uses credit cards. The map below shows some of the local payment methods used across Europe. Buyer preferences differ from country to country. By offering more local payment methods, merchants will increase their conversion.

In Belgium for example, 27% of transactions are processed through Bancontact / MisterCash. In the Netherlands, the vast majority of buyers use iDEAL. And in Germany, payment methods such as giropay and sofort have gained in popularity.

PROTECT YOUR BUSINESS FROM ONLINE FRAUD AND BOOST YOUR REVENUES

The cost of online fraud goes beyond chargebacks and the loss of goods. An analysis of total costs of fraud will include:

Direct and indirect financial costs – include chargebacks plus any fines and increased acquirer fees resulting from fraudulent transactions

Missed revenues from blocked orders occur when genuine transactions are blocked by fraud prevention mechanisms

Costs of fraud prevention are the costs of the resources put in place, such as fraud detection software, or the time spent by fraud analysts reviewing transactions

The key challenge is to tackle online fraud while maximising sales revenues. There is also a need to ensure that the cost of fraud prevention does not exceed the cost of actual fraud.

Getting the balance right

A strict fraud prevention policy may capture a high percentage of fraudulent transactions, but there is also the danger that it will block a significant number of genuine transactions. On the other side, a tolerant fraud prevention strategy or the absence of fraud prevention will increase the number of fraudulent transactions.

How can you minimise the total cost of fraud while maximising sales revenues?

Embracing the latest fraud detection technologies is important to protect sales margins. With a robust and efficient fraud detection tool, merchants can combine their business knowledge while benefiting from the Payment Service Provider’s expertise. Key features include: device fingerprinting, IP geolocation, real-time behavioural mapping, cross-merchant intelligence, or the flexible use of 3-D Secure.

Flexible use of 3-D Secure

Merchants can improve their conversion by switching on and off 3-D Secure, based on criteria such as transaction risk score, transaction amount, issuer identification number…


The use of 3-D Secure varies from country to country and the addition of this authentication step can lead to a large of customers “drop-offs” in some countries. In other instances, the impact is minimal and conversion rates may increase due to merchants being able to accept higher value and higher risk transactions on the basis of 3-D Secure authentication. A flexible approach is therefore highly recommended.

Combining the merchant’s business knowledge with best in class tools and fraud expertise of the payment service provider can deliver the correct solution whatever the channel used – less chargebacks, more genuine transactions, enabling merchants to minimise costs and maximise sales revenues.

CONCLUSION

Select your markets carefully

Localize!

Build trust & consumer satisfaction

Implement fast checkout

Go mobile

Do not block genuine customers

Online shopping cart abandonment rate in selected sectors as of 1st quarter 2015, Statista, SalesCycle

Cracking the World’s Largest ecommerce Markets, June 2015, OC&C, PayPal and Google

Reasons for abandoning online shopping carts in Europe in 2015 comScore; March 2015 (Statista

Importance of options during online checkout process in Europe in 2015, comScore; March 2015 (Statista)

Importance of options during online checkout process in Europe in 2015, comScore; March 2015 (Statista)

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Ingenico ePayments is the online and mobile commerce division of Ingenico Group. We connect merchants and consumers, enabling businesses everywhere to go further beyond today’s boundaries and creating the future of global commerce. As industry leaders since 1994, our innovative spirit drives us forward across all channels. We are the trusted partner of over 65,000 small and large merchants who rely on us to make payments easy and secure for their customers. With advanced data analytics, fraud management solutions and cross-border commerce expertise, we help merchants optimize their business and grow into new markets around the world. For more information, visit: www.ingenico.com/epayments or follow us at @Ingenico_ePymts.

Salesupply is a global e-business services company that enables online retailers to achieve profitable international growth faster, more efficiently and with relatively low costs. Salesupply provides a full range of solutions ranging from research and strategy, to effective localization of web shops, followed by complete operational support, traffic generation and brand management. Through our advanced systems, our flexible operational structure and our international office network we are able to ‚embed‘ these services seamlessly in our customers’ business model.Today we are helping over 200 satisfied webshops with their international e-commerce, including A.T.U, Marks and Spencer, G-Star, O’moda.eu, Fonq.nl, Expresso Fashion, Impericon, Sloggi, EKOSPORT, Unisport and many more. The Salesupply network includes subsidiaries in the Netherlands, the US, Spain, France, Denmark, the UK, Italy, Brazil, Russia, Poland, China and the US.Learn more at www.salesupply.com

[email protected]


http://www.ingenico.com/epayments

http://www.salesupply.com

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